Our Lives Are Spent In Rooms
by PunkPinkPower
Summary: What started as an innocent spat in the pillow isle at the store has clearly turned into an all out decorating war. Emily and Mia decorate their apartment, with somewhat disastrous results.


_Notes: This was such a group effort from so many people- Lilyleia78 for prompting curtain!fic, SailorSol for providing me with lots of picture of random and amusing décor, Noxelementalist, Purplestripe66, and TheSecondBatgirl for providing other décor ideas. Thanks to everyone for the inspiration!_

* * *

"I really just don't like them."

Emily guffaws. "What don't you like?"

Mia crosses her arms, shrugs. "I don't know. They're… funky!"

"Exactly!" Emily shouts, waving the pillow around enthusiastically. "They're perfect!"

"Please pick another set," Mia pleads, yanking the sparkling, oddly shaped, white and yellow pillow out of Emily's hands and putting it back on the shelf. "Any other."

"If you can't even tell me what it is you don't like about it," Emily reasons at her as Mia pushes their cart down the aisle and away from the odd pillows.

"You couldn't tell me what you didn't like about the French shower curtain!" Mia shouts over her shoulder.

"It had faces!" Emily exclaims, and Mia giggles as a few people start giving them strange looks. "I don't want faces of dead people staring at me while I'm showering!"

The pillows somehow find their way onto the couch, though.

* * *

Mia ends up going back for the shower curtain.

She isn't even sure why. She just knows that the pillows stare at her obnoxiously every morning while she has her coffee, and something has to be done.

Emily practically screeches the first time she sees it hanging up when she gets home, and Mia laughs hysterically into her bowl of take-out.

* * *

They have a housewarming party that consists of their five closest friends, Terry, and Emily's sister, and there is lots of conversation about things yet to be added to the large apartment.

"I don't know how you two are squeezing in here," Kevin comments to her as they sip the wine he brought.

"It's cozy," Mia insists, looking around the place they'd picked. "But it does need… I don't know, something." She waves her hand around to indicate what that something might be, and Kevin grins at her.

"These are so entertaining," she hears Antonio comment, and she's looking over to see what he's looking at when Emily shouts.

"Ha!" Emily yells at her, holding up the pillow Antonio isn't inspecting. "Antonio likes them!"

"Because Antonio is the deciding factor in fashion decisions," Mia quips, causing Jayden to giggle.

"Everyone vote!" Emily commands, holding up her sparkling cider like a toast. "Who likes these pillows?"

Mia watches as Antonio raises his hand, followed by Mike, and then Serena. After a moment of intense consideration, Lauren raises her hand too.

"And who doesn't like them?" Mia asks, and the hands go down.

Jayden lifts his hand in a sort of undecided way, and Terry lifts his in a show of unusual sibling solidarity. Beside her, Kevin does nothing, and Mia elbows him.

"What?" He wonders.

"You have to vote," Mia warns him, her eye twitching in her best friend's direction.

"I don't have an opinion," Kevin says. Mia narrows her eyes. "Or," he says slowly, catching on, "I hate them. Yes, yes I hate them." And he raises his hand.

"I still win," Emily says, throwing down the pillow victoriously.

Mia grumbles for a moment, and then she grins.

"Everyone into the bathroom!" She calls, and she picks up Kevin's hand and drags him with her.

Everyone crowds into their tiny bathroom, where Mia points to the shower curtain.

"So, who likes the shower curtain?" Mia asks, turning to them.

They all look skeptical at this point, like they aren't sure whose side they are taking. Eventually, Kevin, Terry, Antonio, and Lauren all raise their hands.

"And I've won on the shower curtain," Mia says triumphantly, and Emily gives her a look.

"Nobody else see's the faces?" Emily asks, turning to the group.

"Oh, I see," Serena says, nodding enthusiastically. "Kinda creepy."

"What faces?" Lauren wonders, her face searching.

"Hey, look," Mike says, pointing to the ceiling, and they all look up. "A hook. You can hang that plant I brought you in here."

* * *

What started as an innocent spat in the pillow isle at the store has clearly turned into an all out decorating war.

Emily can't even believe they're finding the time for it. They're both working, and she's more exhausted than usual lately. Somehow, though, every time she comes home, there's some weird little new thing waiting for her.

It starts with the ginormous sparkly sun symbol hanging above their stove.

"It's huge," Emily says, letting Mia feed her stew that actually tastes like something she'd want to eat, "Don't you think?"

"I thought you'd like it," Mia says, and she pulls the face, the 'oh, I'm this innocent little thing, spar my feelings' face. Emily tries to give her a reprimanding look, but it dissolved into a smile.

"Fine," she says, taking another bite of the stew defiantly, "I like it."

She was the one who brought home the gnome, though.

She waits in the living room, reading her 'Healthy Living' magazine with her feet up. Mia comes in right at 6:05, lugging her large tote bag full of art supplies for the kids she teaches in the afterschool program. She drops it, stretches, and then turns to Emily with a big smile… which immediately turns to confusion.

"What is that?" Mia asks, staring to her side.

"Hmmm?" Emily wonders, flipping the page of the magazine. "What's what?"

Mia stares at her for a long minute, and then she lifts a hand to point to the gnome. "The thing beside the sofa."

Emily gives it an innocent look, like it's always been there, and somehow manages to keep a straight face when she says, "I thought we'd call him Jayden."

Mia doesn't look amused.

Emily indicates on her own head as she says, "Because of the red hat."

Mia walks into the kitchen without saying anything else. Emily sniggers.

* * *

Emily walks into the bathroom one morning and sits down on the toilet with her eyes still half lidded. When she does open them, she lets out a little gasp.

How _on Earth_ did Mia sneak that many plants into the bathroom?

There's a bonsai tree on the back of the toilet, a large palm next to the shower, a hanging vine on the back of the door, and several large flowering plants on the little bathroom corner table, all in addition to the hanging lilac plant Mike originally bought them when they moved in.

Mike, she thinks, looking at all the greenery. Mia had probably bought the colorful pink and peach pots, but she must have roped Mike into doing all this. Traitor, she thinks with a small grin.

She sits in the bathroom, which is now suddenly green despite the yellow tile, and tries to figure out how to retaliate.

And how they're going to keep this many plants alive, for that matter.

* * *

The changes happen gradually over the course of a few months. Suddenly there's some large peacock feather shades over their lamps. Then one day there's a giant chalk board next to the door, with an elaborate drawing of a dragon saying "Water the plants!" Then there's the large silver, paper Mache kitten that ends up sitting atop the television.

Snow globes take up residence on the shelves next to their bed. Paper lanterns adorn their ceiling. Butterfly's end up all over the walls of the currently unused second bedroom. A fuzzy pink bean bag chair sits next to the oriental rocking chair. Mia hangs a small chandelier in their bedroom instead of the conventional light bulb.

It becomes a habit, and it gets to the point that when either of them sees anything, they just shake their heads and smile. Or, if one of them goes too long without noticing something, the other will make a comment to bring it to their attention.

It goes on until one night when Mia gets home from work, and Emily has constructed a giant canopy tent in their living room.

She stares for a minute, blinking. "Alright," she says, amused even as she kicks off her shoes and goes over to scold her, "This is a little much, don't you think?"

Mia pulls back one of the outer curtains to find Emily half asleep, a hand over her eyes. "Relax," she says sleepily, peaking out at Mia from under her arm, "This one is temporary."

Mia smiles at her, crawls into the tent with her. "What are you doing lying on the floor?" She wonders, scooting in to give Emily some leverage to lean against her. "You realize we bought the special _expensive_ mattress on our bed for your back, right?"

Emily giggles and let's Mia wrap her arms around her stomach. "I just wanted to feel like a kid for a while," Emily explains, lacing her fingers with Mia's. "But I think I overdid it hanging this thing up. I'm exhausted now."

Mia tilts her head against Emily's and smiles. "This is perfect," Mia laughs, and Emily hums questioningly at her. "You'll never believe what I brought home today."

Mia lets Emily go, crawls out of the tent just enough to reach into her bag, and pulls out the little globe. She finds a plug, plugs it in, and then crawls back into the tent before she turns it on.

Emily gasps happily. "A rainbow light globe!" She exclaims, and then happily claps her hands together. "I love it!"

"This may be the only thing in the entire apartment that we agree on," Mia laughs, and they both sit there giggling and cuddling for a long time as the multi colored spots dance around the tent.

Mia thinks she really ought to insist Emily get to bed, but then Emily makes another little surprised noise and says, "I know the perfect thing to finish off the other bedroom."

"What?" Mia wonders, giving her a little squeeze.

"Glow-in-the-dark stars," Emily mumbles sleepily.

* * *

The tent ends up staying up for a few weeks, if only because neither of them have the energy or motivation to take it down.

And when their little girl gets there, it becomes a semi permanent fixture.

They lay underneath it at night, their daughter between them, the entire apartment covered in glow-in-the-dark stars and the rainbow light going in the background.

And suddenly the rest of the apartment's decorations don't matter anymore. The latest addition is, without a doubt, both the most wonderful thing either of them has ever brought into the apartment and the end to the decorating war.

At least until she's old enough to participate.


End file.
